Dublin, Ireland

September 2019.

Long weekend in Dublin to meet some lovelies!

It was mid-September but the weather was excellent. Some of the locals said they possibly haven't seen weather in Dublin so sunny and nice for so long straight.

Dublin Castle

Christ Church Cathedral

The Temple Bar district is located on the south bank of the River Liffey, and was once home to Dublin’s elite. By the 18th century it started going downhill until the 1990’s when the city began a regeneration project to turn Temple Bar into a cultural quarter. The area is touristy and crowded but worth strolling around.

The Temple bar pub is there since 1840. I´s a pub with the largest selection of whiskies in Ireland and the pub with the largest selection of sandwiches in the world. They have live traditional Irish music all day every day.

This plaque was installed in O'Connell Bridge's in 2004 by a pair of brothers pranksters. In 2006 and 2007 the Dublin City Council tried to remove it, but in the end it was allowed to stay.

“This plaque commemorates Fr. Pat Noise, advisor to Peadar Clancey.

He died under suspicious circumstances when his carriage plunged into the Liffey on August 10th 1919.

Father Pat Noise is a fictitious Roman Catholic priest. The pranksters claimed the work was a tribute to their father, and that the name 'Father Pat Noise' is a word play on pater noster, Latin for "our father". Until 2006 no-one noticed the plague was a prank.

The Spire of Dublin, alternatively titled the Monument of Light is a 120 m long, steel, pin-like monument in the middle of O'Connell Street. It was the winning entry in an architectural competition to provide a replacement for Nelson's Pillar which was blown up in 1966. It cost 4 million euros. Go figure..

Went to Google EU headquarters to visit Katharina. Seems like such a fun environment to work at!

Some Irish dinner.

St Stephen's shopping centre and St Stephen's Green - a huge park right in the city centre.

As our guide on the free walking tour said, in Dublin you don´t have to search for a bar area, Dublin is a bar area. There are pubs on very street corner, most of them have live music often. Look for happy hours and drink specials as Dublin can be quite pricy.

For the first couple of days we lived at the edge of "China Town" area - that food!!!

Daytrip to Howth.

Howth is an Irish village on the Howth Peninsula, east of central Dublin. From Dublin´s Connelly train station there are trains in every 15 minutes to Howth. The journey takes around half an hour. Tickets are ca 5 EUR for a roundtrip.

Hiking (and going to see the cliffs) is probably one of the best activities in Howth. On a sunny day (like ours) you’ll be rewarded with fresh air and beautiful views everywhere you look.

Howth cliff walk follows the cliff tops and circles the peninsula. The walking trail is about 6 kilometres long with easy terrain and no extreme steep areas or dangerous paths. There are several different paths to follow varying in distance length and difficulty and also somewhat in sights to see.

There was a rescue mission underway when we got to the beginning of the trails as a women had fallen from the cliffs. She was rescued using boats and a helicopter and taken to hospital.

The Howth Summit is magnificent, and offers panoramic views over the whole area. It follows one of the trails and is very easy to climb.

Alice lives here!

How two random guys in a forest tricked us to go looking for a fairytale house..

We were hiking and deciding which trail to take to get back to town when we met these two guys. We asked if where they come at is towards town. They said probably not, but not too far is the cutest little fairy-tale house. When we asked if it's worth it, one of them was a bit unconvinced, other was super enthusiastic. They said they could show a picture of it but that would ruin it. And we believed them!! They kind of explained how to find it by some trees and a scooter?!? and we went looking for it. We spent a good 15 minutes, when suddenly saw this tiny tiny door on an old tree. Alice's house! That's when we put two and two together. Literally a fairy-tale house!